


Sacrifice

by waterandsilver



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Coda, Feelings, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Season/Series 04, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 09:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12385719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterandsilver/pseuds/waterandsilver
Summary: S4E6 snippet inside Keith's head when he Does The Thing™.When the time comes, Keith doesn't hesitate. In all honesty, he made his choice long ago.





	Sacrifice

When the time comes, Keith doesn’t hesitate. In all honesty, he made his choice long ago. The task they were dealt with is so huge… five humans and a handful of rebels, scattered across the galaxy, trying to take down a ten-thousand-year-old empire? He's never been an idealist. He’d be lying if he said that he thought they'd all make it out of this alive, and still, he chose to stay, knowing the risks.

It doesn’t make it any easier, of course. It didn’t stop the way his stomach twisted with horror when the doors had closed on Regris, blasting him back into space. It didn’t dull the awful, hollow certainty of knowing that his fellow Blade member was dead, and that all Keith could do was push on without him. And before him, Thace, consumed by a fireball with a smile on his face, and without a shred of hesitation.

And it’s not any easier now, when he realises what he needs to do.

“We’re not gonna make it,” Lance grunts, the frustration in his voice almost masking the thread of fear underneath.

“Please hurry, Princess,” murmurs Coran, almost too quiet for Keith to catch.

On the screen, Matt is shaking his head. “We’ll never penetrate those shields.”

Keith stares at the scene in front of him. It’s a warzone, alright. The Galra warship looms over him, a hulking steel monster. It almost seems to pulse as it readies its newest weapon. What should be a peaceful stretch of space is a firework show of canon fire. Glowing blasts rain down on them from all directions, filling the air with smoke as the Galra send ship after ship spinning off course and plunging into space. His head is still spinning from where the laser caught his left wing, blasting him with enough power to rattle his bones.

Voltron has beaten impossible odds before, but anyone could see that this is dire. If they don’t stop that detonation, they’re all doomed, and they don’t have any guns big enough to make a difference…

There’s only one thing that can be done. And he needs to be the one to do it. Now, quickly, before anyone else can act. He won’t let anyone else sacrifice themselves.

Keith swallows, hard.

“Maybe not with our weapons.”

Keith has long accepted that the fight against the Galra might take his life before it’s over. But that doesn’t stop his heart from hammering wildly in his chest. Cold dread seeps through him as it sinks in, that he’s going to die _now_.

But he’s a Blade. He might be a rookie, but he’s seen enough to know that any true Blade would do this.

Keith doesn’t let himself think, doesn’t give himself the chance to hesitate. He shoves the ship into gear and surges forward.

“Wait, Keith – what are you doing? Keith, no!”

He can hear Matt’s frantic yelling in his ear, but he tunes him out. Keith throws a hard left, bringing the cruiser directly into his line of vision. It’s a good angle, the pilot in him takes note. He’s got enough momentum, and distance enough to build up his speed. He can make it. He can turn his ship into a bomb, nosedive into the crusier's main canon and take it out.

He’s doing this for Voltron, he reminds himself, as he grips the controls so hard it feels like his knuckles are going to pop through his skin. The ship picks up speed. He doesn’t know if anyone is still trying to contact him, begging him to turn back. Matt’s voice is swallowed by the white scream that surrounds him as he hurtles towards his target.

_This_ is what he can do for Voltron. He might not be a part of them anymore, but they’re a part of him, a part of his history that he can never erase. And even if they’re a better team without him, he can still do this. He can make sure they live to fight another day. No, more than that – he can make sure that one day, they can _stop_ fighting. That they can go home, and live normal, happy lives, knowing that they’ve saved the universe. Keith shoves down the controls, forcing the ship to go even faster.

Keith can’t bring himself to smile, like Thace did. Not when he’s having to fight against every ounce of logic and self preservation in his body screaming at him to turn back, to get to safety. But he shuts his eyes, even though it means flying blind, because he doesn’t want a Galra ship to be the last thing he sees when he goes out.

Instead, he pictures his friends (and they are his friends, no matter how much they might have denied it at the start). He remembers their final farewell – a good farewell, he thinks, maybe the best one he could have hoped for, with no lingering resentment. And suddenly, he’s free of the weight that has dragged him down for so long, the gnawing guilt that he had failed them, that he couldn’t be the leader they needed. He’s free of the crushing regret that he couldn’t find a way to tell them that he _did_ care about them, he _did_ care about Voltron, and he wanted to help them, but he couldn’t do it the way they wanted him to, because that just wasn’t who he was.

He couldn’t be their leader, but he can do this for them.

The weight is gone, and Keith feels lighter now than he can ever remember feeling.

He squeezes his eyes shut, pictures his friends, and forces the ship full throttle ahead. He knows he’s going to make it.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm SO tempted to write an angsty oneshot in which Keith actually dies and the team reacts. Is there a market for that fic?? Should I write it out of pure self-indulgence??


End file.
